ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the numerous connections forged between the heroine's tale and popular beliefs about fairies in The Maid's Metamorphosis, which are revelatory of the wider cultural significance of fairy figures for the early modern women to whom tales were primarily ascribed. The portrayal of the fairies of The Maid's Metamorphosis by the boys of St. Paul's on the early modern stage further problematizes the social construction of gender and class roles already unsettled by personations of women by boy actors and nobles by vagabond actors. By the point in the play's action, the actor playing Eurymine has been depicted as a cast-away from court, a shepherdess, and a woman transformed into a man—and this is just the beginning. Class and gender roles are called into question in various ways over the course of The Maid's Metamorphosis, suggesting that the normative modes of class- and gender-based interaction are not, in fact, the only viable options.
